Marketing Options For Cleaning Companies - Part One

Cleaning companies have a variety of marketing methods open to
them for gaining new clients.

· Telesales · Yellow pages advertising · Thompson’s Local
Directory · Mailing lists · Leaflet drops · Newspaper
advertising · Journal advertising · Direct selling · Internet
advertising

In my own experience cold calling on companies has not met with
any success. Most companies who want cleaning carried out
already have cleaners in place and they will only change them if
they think they can get it done cheaper or if they are
dissatisfied with the cleaning. Managing to locate a company who
are in the process of making a decision about their cleaning and
telephoning them at that moment in time is a very long shot. You
must make the decision as to whether it is cost effective to tie
somebody up on the telephone for long hours for possibly little
return. If for example your cleaning covers a very wide area
such as a whole region of the UK then it may be worth it, but if
you are restricted to a small area then probably not. What you
may end up with are a lot of calls to give quotes simply because
the company wants to see if they get their cleaning done cheaper
than at present. Even in these circumstances and you submit a
quote which is cheaper they still may not have the impetus to
change if they are happy with their present regime. However you
do end up on their files for that day when they do finally
decide to change. So you could get a call one two or even three
years down the line.

Advertising in the yellow pages is probably a must, as despite
the advent of the Internet people do still use yellow pages to
find services they require. At least this way the company are
calling you for a quote so are more likely to actually require
cleaners. From the point of view of closing a sale it is better
if the client has chosen you rather than the other way round.
The only problem with advertising in the yellow pages is one of
cost. There are probably a large number of firms advertising
their services that you are in direct competition with.
Consequently you have to make your advertisement stand out from
the others. To do this is a very costly exercise but ultimately
should be worth it for the amount of new business it brings in.

Advertising in Thompson’s directories I find difficult to
comment on. Whilst being cheaper than Yellow Pages in my own
experience it has brought in very little new business.

Using a Mailing list and contacting companies with a sales
letter, like telesales is a matter of chance. Again you have the
time factor to pay for plus the postage plus the cost of buying
in a mailing list if you do not put one together yourself.
Putting a mailing list together is a very time consuming
business. I know because I have done it, and again in our
experience it brings in very little new business. If you have a
high advertising budget then it may be something that you
consider worthwhile.

As far as advertising in local newspapers is concerned this can
become very costly for little or no return so I would not
recommend this to any new cleaning business. Possibly with
carpet cleaning and window cleaning you will have more success.
However the take up from your advertisement will mainly be
domestic customers not commercial concerns. Likewise advertising
in specialist journals is a costly exercise but possibly
worthwhile if your budget is large enough. However you have to
research the journals carefully to make sure that the companies
you are trying to target actually subscribe to these and more
importantly read them.

Leaflet drops, direct marketing and Internet advertising will be
covered in part two of the article.